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Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

from www.knoppix.net
# Linux-Kernel 2.4.x
# KDE V3.1 as the standard desktop with K Office and the Konqueror WWW-browser konqueror
# X Multimedia System (xmms) an MPEG-video, MP3, Ogg Vorbis Audio player and xine
# Internet connection software kppp,pppoeconf (DSL) and isdn-config
# Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) Version 1.2
# utilities for data recovery and system repairs, even for other operating systems
# network and security analysis tools for network administrators
# OpenOffice(TM), the GPL-developed version of the well-known StarOffice(TM) office suite
# many programming languages, development tools (including kdevelop) and libraries for developers
# in total more than 900 installed software packages with over 2000 executable user programs, utilities, and games

wireless card was a bit tough to setup, even though it lincludes ndiswrapper

I installed this overtop of a RH 9 partition. I was dual booting between xp and RH 9. It recognized everything on the laptop itself, without any problem. very nice to have use of the touchpad again!

i was a little disappointed that even though it included ndiswrapper, it gave me some trouble. Allbeit, it was probably my fault in using the wrong drivers or something for my WPC54G card, It took several hours of tinkering to get the card to work.

All in all, it's a great distro, with some really nice tools on it. For being a single CD it has just about everything a casual user would want. Every System Admin should have this, or even better, the Knoppix STD in their back pocket.

runs on every hardware, always includes new useful programs (that you did not know before), excellent for system troubleshooting purposes, try out linux without installing it

Cons:

kind of slow (since it runs of the cd)

If you don't know Knoppix, you are missing out on a great tool. If you know it already, chances are that you value it greatly. That is, because we all found something in it that we did not know before:
A system that runs directly off a CD, no installing. Knoppix Linux does what cannot be done in Windows (windows cannot be run from a CD independently) and so far has served as my "sanity check" tool for several hardware I asked that questions. A networkcard acting funny on windows? A soundcard malfunctioning? Not sure if it is hardware or software? Pop in Knoppix and get an independent opinion.
Windows crashed and you want to get your data off the HD? Knoppix does it again. The newest version even includes the still somewhat experimental "captive" drivers for reading AND WRITING on a NTFS volume. Did not get it to work yet, but sounds promising.
All this is achived by a heavily compressed image, that in essence enables knoppix to contain more than 1 gb of programs on just 1 cd.
This not only includes several games, a whole open office edition, disk partitioning tools, but also a terminal server. I am probably forgetting many things, and since every release keeps including new things, it is kind of hard to name all of them.
For me, knoppix is an invaluable tool that I always keep handy. I am looking forward to the new DVD edition, which will include a ton of software that just did not fit the CD before.
Knoppix is a brilliant idea that made heads turn and although there are others, it is the original and probably shows what great things can be conceived in the spirit and framework of open source and linux.

I have some hardware that sometimes requires fixes in Linux, an Intel 810 onboard video, a 3Com 905 and the fixes are a matter of quick config file edits but that's not as simple under Knoppix. To it's saving grace, I will say that it does an amazing job of coming up off the CD-ROM and working "out of the box" with A LOT of hardware. This in itself is a testament to the Knoppix team, and some other distributions should take more notes here.

I had a bear of a time getting the bits onto a CD. I used wget on my slow DSL connection (27k max d/l's, idiot telco don't ask!) and had to re download a couple times before the MD5sum checked out, and then from there it took a couple burns to get the built in CD check to pass it's MD5sum. Your milage may vary, and it may be due to my choice of mirrors. I also did not try the torrent, which I may do next time.

In the end though, it is an excellent distribution, lots of neat utilities and games for the Linux beginner and expert alike. It includes memtest86, so it replaces my old memtest CD-RW as one of the more useful tools in my toolkit!

It is also a very solid choice for a hard drive install. In fact, I use it as my primary operating system. However, I seem to change distributions every few weeks.

I like the selection of software. Still, some things seem incomplete. For example, you can not specify your monitor resolution and frequency. Knoppix chooses this for you. As another example, Knoppix includes Kdevelop, yet, you need to visit www.kdevelop.com to view help files and tutorials. Fotunately, Knoppix will have a more complete DVD version in a couple months.

Knoppix also leaves out a significant amount of proprietary software. I personally like this because I believe that software should be free. Some users may miss some of these non-free applications.

I got my copy as an ISO image on the cover-DVD of a magazine, burnt it to a CD-R, and have been raving about it ever since.

I was very surprised at how easily this copes with different hardware configurations (I've run it on 3 systems so far - P3, P4 and Athlon XP). The only slight wobble was it reporting that the oldest system had reported an invalid video mode at start-up, but this made no noticeable difference to the video output. I have found it easy to install two different models of printer (both HP). The Only device I have not managed to get to work is a controllerless modem, but I feel it would be unreasonable to complain here, as SuSE required a downloaded driver to be (compiled and) installed for this.

It has proved very capable network-wise. Accessing a Samba-share via Konqueror is very easy, and I currently have XMMS playing MP3s from a mounted Samba file-system. On my home network, the Ethernet card has to be manually configured, but at work it appeared to have no trouble getting its configuration via DHCP.

In addition, I have found it to be more stable than SuSE. I have not yet used it for long enough to say whether it matches Mac OSX, but I have yet to have a single program crash or system freeze.

As a way of promoting Linux, it is excellent. Easy to use, and with a reasonable range of software. As already stated, it also has its practical uses. I am seriously considering trying a hard-disk install, and promoting it to my main version of Linux.

I must say, i have tried distros that need 5 install discs, and none of them compared to KNOPPIX, knoppix comes with so much more than i expected and is extreamly powerfull. KNOPPIX comes with better hardware support than all other distros i have tried and it is bundled with more usefull packages than any other distro i used. Definatly one of the best distro's for network admins that want to fix something real quick, or for end users of desktops.

For the three computers I have in my household and the four live CD distros I've tried, this is the best. The hiccup is where it needed some arguements to tell it how to run on my HP Pavilion 16" monitor, which is kind of old and flaky, anyway. After I specified the monitor dimensions and color depth, it ran fine.

On the other computers, a rogue's gallery of hardware, it ran with no direction at all.

This is the most Linux I have ever seen crammed onto one disc. A truly impressive distro! It competes well with the three-disc distro of installed Red Hat 9.0 I have on one machine.

It runs smooth. You'll never know it's on CD! The "look and feel" is also the best of any distro I've seen. This is a disc I can show off to impress my alternative OS-using friends.

My only other minor beef - where are the screen savers? Either they're not there, or KDE can't see them, I haven't figured that one yet. Blank screen still works, and I guess if they had to cut the screensavers, they definitely made up for it with the staggeringly inclusive program package.